114 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ August, 



rives we would admonish our readers to be 

 vigilant and apply the remedies we have 

 named, or any other which their experience 

 may suggest, preventing it, if possible, from 

 getting a foothold on their premises, and it is 

 for this reason that we are now anticipating 

 its advent. It seems that it does not confine 

 itself in carpets alone, but also infests other 

 woolen fabrics, and singularly enough it is 

 not known to infest carpets at all in Europe, 

 from whence it came. 



Mr. Lintner mentions an instance where it 

 is said to have preyed upon cotton fabrics, 

 and then adds, "a habit not attaching to 

 either the carpet {moth) or clothes moth." So 

 far as concerns the "clothes moth" (Tinea 

 vestianella,) this is a mistake, for we ha?e in 

 several well-defined instances found this in- 

 sect preying, not only upon cotton fabrics, 

 but also upon linen. On one particular occa- 

 sion, on opening an unfrequented box in our 

 clothing establishment, containing fragments 

 of linen canvas, unbleached muslin and coarse 

 woolen goods, we found them all equally scored 

 and cased by Tinea vestianella. Of course this 

 is not their normal habit, but it is difficult to 

 say what any of these insect imps would not 

 do in an emergency. 



Some years ago we hung up some follicles 

 of the "sackbearer" (T hyridopteryx,) in our 

 sanctum, from which the young were excluded 

 during our absence, and when we returned 

 they had constructed their little, erect, spur- 

 like cases out of whitewash on the wall, 

 leather from the backs and paper from the 

 sides of some books on which they had 

 alighted. Neither of these animals may have 

 fed upon the substances named, but they cer- 

 tainly constructed their habitacute out of 

 them. They seem to be, more or less, crea- 

 tures of circumstance as well as centrestance. 

 It is curious that most of the destructive 

 insects that have been introduced into the 

 United States from Europe or elsewhere, in- 

 crease more rapidly and become more de- 

 structive than they were known to have been 

 in their native countries, and very often prey 

 upon different plants and other substances 

 here from what they do there. In order to 

 show how much we owe to foreign countries 

 for our present insect inflictions, we append a 

 list of foreigners that have become naturalized 

 in our country: " Ilessian-fly, " Cccidmujia 

 destructor; "Wheat-midge," Biplosis tritici; 

 "Cheese-fly," Piophila easel; "House-fly," 

 Musca domestiea ; "Currant-worm," Nenuitus 

 ventricosus; " Oyster Shell Bark Louse," As- 

 pidiotus concMfm-nius ; "Cockroach," Blatta 

 orientalis ; "Meal-worm," Tenebrio molitor; 

 "Croton-bug," Ectobia germanica; "Grain- 

 weevil," Sitophiliis (jranariiis ; "Bee-moth," 

 Galleria cereana; " CodMng-moth," Carpo- 

 capsa pomonella; "Cabbage-moth," Plutella 

 cruciferarum; "Cabbage (green) Worm," 

 Pierisrapce; "Carpet-moth," Tinea tapetzella ; 

 "Clothes-moth," Tinea vestianella; "Fur- 

 moth," Tinea pelionella; "Currant-borer," 

 JErjeria tipuUforniis ; "Asparagus-beetle," 

 Crioceris asparagi ; "Carpet-beetle," Anthre- 

 nus scropladaria;.; "Museum-beetle," Anthre- 

 nus musorum, and many others more or less 

 noxious. Twenty years ago we received a 

 collection of coleopterous insects from Europe, 

 badly infested witli this last named species, 

 and we have never been able to expel them 

 entirely from our premises since. If there 

 are no insects accesible, they will feed on 

 tooth-brushes, camels' hair brushes, cork, 

 &c., &c. We are not sure that wc have our 

 native species [A. varius) at all. We never 

 had them on our premises until we received 

 that foreign collection ; but from that time 

 we have never been without them, and, as 

 Paddy said, "Bod luck 'till them, anyhow." 

 The carpet-beetle is a subject in which every 

 housekeeper (especially the female heads) has 

 a deep interest, and being thus forewarned 

 they will be wise if they forearm themselves. 

 We admonish them, however, not to expect 

 anything very formidable to the eye. They 

 may see the evil effects of its operations long 

 before they see either the larva or the beetle 

 themselves, but when those effects become 

 apparent they may know their cause. 



THE SPARROW NUISANCE. 



The leading article in that excellent scientific 

 monthly, the American Naturalist, is by Dr. Coues, 

 the eminent ornithologist, on the much vexed spar- 

 row question. It is lonp; and minute, and the array 

 of charges brought against that quarrelsome alien is 

 overwhelming. "No man, either in this country or 

 elsewhere, is more competent to discuss this question 

 than Dr. Coues, and what he says we are willing to 

 accept as authority. Ills words will have more 

 weight among naturalists than all the silly senti- 

 mentality which the host of ignorant people who 

 have discussed the sparrow question have brought 

 forward. He calls attention to the fact that the 

 sparrow is foreign to our bird fauna, that there is no 

 place for it, and consequently those who compare its 

 condition in Europe with its present relations here 

 are founding their arguments on a false position. He 

 calls attention to the fact that it is increasing far 

 more rapidly here than in Europe. Here we build 

 houses for it, and feed it regularly, and the law pro- 

 tects it. There they must shift for themselves, like 

 all other birds, and are freely trapped and shot. 



Dr. Coues advises the same course here. Take 

 away the protection of the law ; cease to feed it ; let 

 who will kill and eat them ; let them be used instead 

 of pigeons at shooting matches ; in this way their 

 increase may be checked and perhaps kept within 

 bounds. Unless this is done he predicts the day will 

 come when our grain fields, gardens and orchards will 

 be so depredated upon that legislative enactments 

 will be called into requisition to check their increase. 

 We advise all interested in this matter to read this 

 arraignment of these pests, and adopt its sugges- 

 tions. They have already found their way into dis- 

 tant Colorado, and will soon spread along the Pacific 

 shores. The fact thiit no other bird known is multi- 

 plying its numbers as this one, is alone sufficient 

 cause for us to adopt remedial steps. None of our 

 native birds are perceptibly increasing, while the 

 sparrows are multiplying at the rate of millious 

 yearly. — New Era. 



And now that Dr. Coues has spoken— and 

 philosophically spoken, too— lesser lights may 

 receive a more patient hearing ; and we may 

 well wonder why the English sparrow was 

 ever introduced into this country as a specific 

 insect destroyer. And what are they in the 

 recognized systems of ornithological classifica- 

 tion, anyhow? They belong to the great 

 family FiiiNGrLLiD.E, or Finches ; and finches 

 are not classed with insectivorous birds by 

 any means, although during the period of 

 rearing their young they may appropriate a 

 limited number of insects. Cassel, in his 

 natural history of birds, has an illustration 

 which represents the parallelism of mammals 

 and birds, dividing them into eight great 

 classes, although there may be sub or inter- 

 mediate classes. The first is represented by 

 the monkey and the parrot, or frugivorous ; 

 the second by the panther and the falcon, or 

 carnivorous ; the third by the hyena and the 

 vulture, or carrionivorous ; the ft>urth by the 

 tupaia* and the starling, or insectivorous ; the 

 iijth by the field mouse and the sparrow, or 

 granivorous ; the sixth by the antelope and 

 the nepaul,t or herbivorous, (having complex 

 stomachs and feeding upon pasturage and the 

 fruit thereof) ; the seventh Ijy the camel and 

 the ostrich, also herbivorous, but inhabiting 

 the deserts, and provided with immense 

 stomachs ; and the eighth by the seal and the 

 penguin, or piscatorial in their habits. Of 

 course these divisions are but an outline, and 

 perhaps not free from artificiality, but they 

 give the general location and feeding habits 

 of the two great classes of animals they repre- 

 sent. Under any circumstances, it illustrates 

 that sparrows are not generally classed with 

 insectivorous animals, whatever habits they 

 may acquire through domestication, or by 

 proximity to the human family. There is one 

 very singular coincidence connected with the 

 subject, and that is that these sparrows, like 

 all the noxious insects that have been intro- 

 duced into our country from Europe, increase 

 more rapidly, and are more destructive here 

 than they are in their native country ; but 

 strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless a 

 well known and indisputable /act. 



In tlie foresoing wo have merely intended 

 to localize the sparrow in the system of bird 

 classification, based upon their feeding habits, 

 but to show that neither the opinions of Dr. 

 Coues nor cm- reflections are conclusive to all 



*An insect-eating mammal, allied tO Hie anteaters. 

 tA kind of horned grouse. 



minds, we append the following from Dr. 

 Hagen, and the action of the Massachusetts 

 Senate on the vexed subject. We probably 

 shall sift out the truth after awhile. 



The decisions of the " Nuttall Club," of which a 

 report is given in No. 18 of the Country Gentleman, 

 are based upon observations contradicting in several 

 points the ones which are accepted by science, in the 

 most decided manner. It appears by the report that 

 the club either had no knowledge of these earlier 

 observations, covering a space of more than a cen- 

 tury, and sustained by ornithologists of well-known 

 reputation, or that it did not deem it worth while to 

 compare its own observations with the earlier ones, 

 which ought to have been done to fulfill the well- 

 known demands of science. The sparrow literature 

 is large, and opinions during the past century have 

 considerably changed, until the final decision is most 

 decidedly favorable to its value. 



Now, when American dealers find it profitable to 

 import seed from Germany, and German dealers find 

 it profitable to export them, it is rather obvious that 

 the sparrows, so exceedingly common in German 

 nursery-gardens, cannot be a pest there, and conse- 

 quently will not be a pest here. 



Nobody has ever contended that the sparrow is a 

 beauty or a charming singer. Indeed, he is only an 

 indefatigable business man, minding first his own 

 affairs, as is not uncommon amoBg business men. 

 But he is admirably adapted to his business — which 

 is to destroy insects ; he is very enduring, staying 

 through the winter, when few other insect-eating 

 birds are here ; he begins to breed much earlier, and 

 breeds much oftener than other birds, and is, there- 

 fore, more able to give an effective help in the de- 

 struction of insects and weeds. But it is true that 

 he should be supported, as Mr. Allen remarks judi- 

 ciously in the report, though enforcing, by statuary 

 enactments, the protection of the fruit and shade 

 trees by all available means. 



As no naturalist would pretend that a bird, by im- 

 portation into a foreign, but similar climate, could 

 entirely change its character in a few years, the 

 sparrow question will probably here go through the 

 same, though briefer, stages of opinion as in Europe. 

 I consider the sparrow to he a valuable addition to 

 the native birds, and most certainly beneficial for 

 both horticulturists and farmers.— Zlc. Mafjen in 

 Anieriean Agriculturist . 



[From the Massachueetts Ploughman.] 

 In March, 1877, an order was introduced in the 

 Massachusetts Senate, by Senator Gregory, concern- 

 inn- English sparrows, and this order was referred to 

 the Committee on Agriculture. The sparrow was 

 and is protected under our laws. The idea of this 

 order was to have this protection removed because of 

 the character and habits of the sparrow. The mat- 

 ter was talked over in committee and a hearing was 

 anno\inced . Quite a number of gentlemen appeared, 

 and the evidence given by them was almost entirely 

 against the sparrow. A few facts may be stated, 

 "Sparrows were introduced into New York some- 

 where about ISCO, and into Boston some five years 

 later— and so far as known they have benefited the 

 trees in these cities. They have increased very 

 rapidly and have driven away many of our native 

 birds. They are naturally quarrelsome. They are 

 not insect-feeding birds, but rather seed-eating. 

 They lirced tremendously— as many as four or five 

 broods in a year, while most birds breed no more 

 than two of three times. Gentlemen living near 

 Boston stated that the sparrows in the suburbs did 

 not disturb the canker worms, but left them for 

 robins and orioles, while they devoured the buds and 

 blossoms on fruit trees. They are great fighters and 

 kill blue birds. One gentleman who had observed 

 the sparrow upon Long Island, stated that they were 

 a great nuisance there, having spread out from New 

 York ; also, that great complaint was made of their 

 doings in the grain-fields about Philadelphia. It is 

 well known that the English people have regarded 

 them as a nuisance for a long time, because of their 

 destructive habits in grain-fields. The same may be 

 said for Northern Prussia and Norway. In Germany, 

 bounties are given for their destruction. In Cuba, a 

 pair of sparrows were introduced in 1862 or 3, and 

 they are now very numerous. In both Cuba and 

 Spain they do immense damage to grain-fields, and 

 are called " Destroyers." The evidence was conclu- 

 sive that, outside of cities and towns, in all countries 

 where they exist, they are an undoubted nuisance to 

 agriculturists. That they drive away other birds 

 which are much to be preferred, both for their musi- 

 cal qualities and their peaceable habits." 



As a result of this hearing a bill was Introduced 

 and considerable discussion was had in the House. 

 The idea of the bill was to take away the protection 

 now granted to the sparrow. It was shown that this 

 lack of protection would not In all probability affect, 

 unfavorably, the life and growth of the birds in 

 cities and towns, hut would operate to their disad 

 vantage in the country alone. It was shown that 

 the sparrows are already very numerous In many of 

 our Massachusetts towns along the lines of railways 

 —that they were also multiplying in many of our 

 Western States. The principal opposition to the 



